Stage III: Forest Dweller - the prerequisite and facilitator of the "inner journey"

Stage IV: De-Accumulation (via completion of the Four Stages and the Seven Steps to Realization, followed by abidance in the solitude of a relative existence that has been overlaid with the Absolute, then by abidance as the Nothingness, then by simple abidance, period, until the end of the manifestation).

Something interesting begins to happen after movement into the Fourth Stage and as the Ultimate Medicine is then delivered and received in the exact, seven-step manner that is required to address the Ultimate Sickness.

First, recall the Traditional Stages that have been followed by some seekers in the East for hundreds if not thousands of years:

What is interesting is that, while the Four Stages here and the stages of Maharaj's "journey" both differ from the Traditional Stages, some of those Traditional Stage components do manifest in the Four Stages as presented here:

Post-realization, teaching may happen or not, but if teaching does happen, it often happens in the manner that is similar to the way it happens in the original, Traditional Stages.

Meaning?

Meaning that something not unlike the traditional "hermit" mode happens in that the teachings might be shared for a part of the day but the teacher still reserves larger portions of the day in order to be "cloistered," guaranteeing that the solitude and the quiet which the realized enjoy is assured. Understand, however, that such is not necessary.

(Yet whatever happens post-realization will happen spontaneously and with attachment6, so the one continuing to work in a crowded office can enjoy peace as much as another "realized one" sitting alone in the woods and listening to a babbling brook as the waters flow by.)

However, in the stages here, there will be no assumption of any new persona, including neither "The Hermit" nor "The Recluse." (You would not call the deer lying in the afternoon shade "A Hermit Deer" or "A Recluse Deer." The deer is just behaving naturally, enjoying the solitude and the quiet. The solitude or "cloistering" just happens spontaneously.)

So the "cloistering" among "the realized" can even happen in a crowd, though the solitude becomes the "norm" no matter what externals might surround the realized. The same pattern came to pass with Maharaj: he generally received visitors for a period in the morning and again later in the day, but the rest of the day he enjoyed rides into the countryside, in natural settings, away from the masses;

or, on other occasions, he followed the advice he gave to some visitors: he walked to the river and sat on the bank and enjoyed the natural setting as he watched the waters flow by. That sometimes happened alone and sometimes happened with a realized companion.

Another comparison is this: in the Traditional Stage Four, "The Renunciant" appears. In the Four Stages here, something like "The Renunciant" also manifests at the end of the third of seven steps. Since "The Renunciant" is also an ego-state, that cannot happen until the end of the third of seven steps but cannot continue into the fourth of seven steps. Why?

By the fourth of seven steps, all identification ends. "The Renunciant" still involves identification and movement in the not-yet-totally-pure-consciousness that will eventually only witness, post-realization; therefore, unlike with the Traditional Stages, the case with the Four Stages here is this: "The Renunciant" cannot continue after realization - all identity and ego-states having ended.

By continuing to complete the seven-step "journey" which occurs in Stage Four, the pure consciousness level (that is, the pure witnessing level) manifests, as illustrated by the naturally-abiding deer. At that point, nothing is "accepted" and nothing is "renounced": anyone thought to have been "The Accepter" is gone and the same applies to "The Renunciant."

Yet all must be renounced before the fourth and fifth steps can happen. What is renounced as the third of seven steps is transcended? The societal mores of any and every culture; anything considered by any society to be its norms and customs;

anything and everything that is deemed virtuous or valuable by any culture, or deemed "bad" or worthless by any culture; any and all beliefs and ideas and concepts, including but certainly not limited to patriotism, nationalism, pride, ambition, ownership, good, bad, best, special, personal, different, better than;

including anything and everything held sacred by any and all cultures or anything deemed to be a "sacred cow" to persons, that is, anything held onto and considered to be valuable in spite of all the evidence to the contrary;

including all belief in hierarchies, whether the hierarchies include those that are established in recovery groups, the military, organized religion, spiritual groups, corporate offices, police forces and fire departments, or those involving economic strata as well as in local, state, national or international organizations;

including forms of government and economic systems; including any and all beliefs held about "relationships" and about what most take "love" to be; also renounced are all forms of dogma, all ideologies, all philosophies, and all spiritual movements (and, yes, that includes Advaita Vedanta, in the end);

including all identification; including all that is thought to be "personal"; all personality; and all other content of the "mind." Also renounced eventually are any and all teachings, including those here that deal along the way with self vs. non-self, self Vs. Self, beingness vs. non-beingness.

Eventually, after all is renounced, then the remainder of the manifestation unfolds in a non-dual, no-concept, no-belief, no-identity fashion, and that is why the consciousness can speak and factually assert that . . .

"Here, there is nothing that is believed, so there is no one here who wants you to believe anything, either. Here, the invitation is to be free of all that you have been programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, brainwashed and indoctrinated to believe so that you can be free, period."

In the Fourth Stage here, de-accumulation must be complete as far as beliefs and identities are concerned. To move through all seven steps and into a state of "Full Realization," renunciation must be completed along the way as well.

With de-accumulation and the completion of all seven steps on the "journey," ignorance goes and logic comes; then, too, come the simplicity, the peace of the silence, and the pleasures that can be enjoyed after the Absolute has been overlaid onto the relative.

Only if seekers de-accumulate totally and renounce totally can total freedom manifest, and only if total freedom and total independence manifest can total bliss manifest. Best regards on your "journey."

Coming Next: The Causes, Symptoms, Effects, and Aspects of the Ultimate Sickness have been discussed. Next, the Treatment.

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 2,900 posts for any topics of interest to you.

Non-Duality Paperback Books on Amazon.com

Five Free eBooks

Compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.,
the following eBooks are available without charge for you or for friends:

I."GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"

The content of this eBook deals with one of the most common but erroneous beliefs that the non-Realized masses cling to and which they will fight about (and even kill over), namely, that there is a planet-wide duel going on between “the forces of good and evil” in the universe.

Either (1) the ancient view is spot on: that the "ills of the planet" are rooted in evil people, in people not being religious enough or spiritual enough, and are caused solely by bad morality; or, (2) the "ills of the planet" are rooted in ignorance, stupidity and insanity and "being good" or "being moral" does not put an end to ignorance, does not eliminate stupidity, and does not treat insanity in any way.

II."THE VISION"

Comments regarding the free eBook entitled “THE VISION”:

“My thanks to you and Andy.” – Andrew “Mac” McMaster

“Thanks so much for the book! And, by the way, it is brilliant and the most effective pointing that you have done. It has served to help clear the remaining blockages.” – Stan Cross

“Greatly appreciate having “THE VISION” added to my Henderson resource library that is situated on the right side of my bed for easy access! Eternally grateful for what was received and what was given.” – Robert Rigby

“‘THE VISION’ is such a well-written, condensed version of the Nisarga Yoga approach to understanding and enjoying Reality that I feel it can serve as a must-read ‘meditation guide’ for all earnest seekers.” – Andy Gugar, Jr.

III."Sapolsky, Maharaj, and the Non-Dual Teachings"

Dr. Robert Maurice Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinologist; a professor of biology, neuroscience, and neurosurgery at Stanford University; a researcher; an author; and a Research Associate at the National Museums of Kenya.

There is much that a non-dualist or Advaitin or Nisargan can relate to by comparing and contrasting what Sapolsky reveals about the way certain troops of baboons live in Africa with the way that humans abide all around the globe.

This 152-page eBook catalogues the common, non-dual message shared by Sapolsky and Maharaj and reveals the ways that Sapolsky’s scientific research supports the non-dual pointers offered by Maharaj.

IV.Seeking

In “PART ONE” it will be seen that most persons on the planet are not seeking, and most will never seek, but for those who are seeking, most will face several obstacles:

In “PART TWO” of this book, it will be seen why many criticized Maharaj for “changing his message in his later talks.” It will be seen that the changes were not about changing the message per se as much as about changing his methodology as he experimented with one version of the Ultimate Medicine after another in order to try to find an effective means for addressing the Ultimate Sickness.

He tried a religious version of the Medicine, a Spiritual version of the Medicine, and finally settled on a version which addressed to Sickness at its core . . . at the mental and emotional level.

V."THE MOST DANGEROUS BELIEF OF ALL"

“Dangerous” is a term that can only apply during the relative existence, but of those who do commit suicide, for example, how many shoot themselves in the foot over and over until they “bleed out”? None. They shoot themselves in the head. Why? In order to try to stop the noise - to try to stop the chatter of a thousand monkeys – to stop the noisy mind which is the area that stores the ideas, notions, concepts, mind-stuff, etc. which drives them into the depths of insanity.

And what are those ideas, notions, concepts, etc. called, collectively? "Their beliefs." The irony? They are not their beliefs at all. They are the beliefs of “others” that were set in place via programming, conditioning, etc. and which persons then think are their own.

And what are those beliefs rooted in, and what reinforces those beliefs and convinces persons that they are sacred and worth fighting over and even sometimes worth dying for? Blind faith.

This 337-page eBook discusses those issues in detail.

To read any or all of the free eBooks, please double-click the "FREEBIES" link at the top of this page